Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to improve community safety.

This Government is committed to cutting crime and delivering the safer streets that the public deserves.

The Government is also committed to recruiting 20,000 additional police officers by March 2023 and despite the challenges of COVID-19, as at 31 March 2021, 8,771 officers were recruited through the Uplift programme. Deployment of the new officers will be a matter for Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables but their presence should contribute to making streets safer.

The Safer Streets Fund was launched on 26 January 2020, providing £25 million in 2020/21 to support 52 areas across England and Wales persistently and disproportionately affected by neighbourhood and acquisitive crimes, like burglary, robbery and theft. The fund is being used by Police and Crime Commissioners to invest in well evidenced, physical crime prevention measures, such as improved street lighting and CCTV.

On 28 January 2021, we launched a second £20m round of the Safer Streets Fund, for 2021/22. This second round will give funding to Police and Crime Commissioners and Local Authorities to invest in crime prevention, both in commercial and residential areas.

We have also announced we are investing a further £25 million in the Safer Streets Fund for the 2021/22 financial year, building on the £45 million already committed between 2020 and 2022. This additional funding will look to deliver innovative and evidence-based crime prevention measures in public spaces, with a focus on ensuring women and girls feel safe in the public domain.